Marked for Araphat Mohammed
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
3‑0, and Araphat Mohammed took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Hearts of Oak tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Sifiso Khune, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.92
A mark of 8.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.33 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Hearts of Oak know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Hearts of Oak right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Daddy Abdulrahman and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Hearts of Oak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Oppong is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of David Oppong
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Bechem United will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hearts of Oak were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad9 Nov 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.09 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match7 Nov 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hearts of Oak and Bechem United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 9.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Teboho Khune and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ali Mohammed
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Sifiso Khune, 21, steals the show — 8.44
Marked 8.44 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Emmanuel Amankwah is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hearts of Oak have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Daddy Abdulrahman and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Sep 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Eni has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Mohammed, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Aduana Stars, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hearts of Oak, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Hearts of Oak until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daddy Abdulrahman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mamelodi Sundowns have kept their man, and Hearts of Oak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Hearts of Oak will try again when the window opens; Medeama may not be selling by then.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Teboho Khune
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Hearts of Oak will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Hearts of Oak say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Araphat Mohammed has just signed for Hearts of Oak, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Free State Stars is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kelvin Osei Asibey and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Patrick Atiemo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Albert Appiah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Isaac Addo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.